"Confused"

This is called “Confused” because throughout I didn’t really have the faintest idea what I was going to do next.When I first started I had a very specific idea – I’d been mulling on it for a week while we were away at the Opera in Düsseldorf, but as soon as I got into the shop it became obvious it wasn’t going to work as I’d originally intended. I still think it’s a good idea – it just needs more work.Sigh.I’d also decided, this time out, that I was going to keep a log of exactly what I did, and, more importantly perhaps, how long it all took.I personally am horrified at the result, especially in the light of what’s come out the end.Work started on February 23rd.Actually working the piece – “making sawdust” – 13 hours.Thinking – this doesn’t include “mulling” time – walking around the shops, watching TV, driving, sitting on a bus, snoozing – this is actual “thinking as a job of work” – 23 hours.Add to this what I call the “wine hours” – the early evening – work of all forms is finished for the day – and I sit at my desk, with a glass of wine, winding down doing just exactly what I want to do – sometimes I surf, sometimes I write emails – but when I’m in the middle of a project I take pictures of where I’m up to, and look at and think on those – this was a great tip from vipond33 – there were 6 of those hours.

A few construction pictures…I don’t like working with small pieces, hand-held, so I usually attach them to a jig I made years ago…

When possible, I’ll glue-gun things together, just to see how things are progressing…

Or clamp them…

Angles on the veneer (the bottom veneer angles are, as you can see, different) – I needed to be “clever” in order to maintain rotational symmetry…

It was absolutely critical that the top be size-stable – so I veneered the top and bottom onto thin ply, then glued those to another bit of ply…

KnickKnack – Clearly you have completed another work of art that meets some amount of satisfaction and not confusion because you have published it for comments. I dare say that some of your prior work would be better suited to the label of “Confusion”. You are letting the wood and shapes speak to you. To minimize confusion, consider developing a philosophy or set of guidelines to help you in your decision making process. For instance, when I do a piece I use a philosophy that the joinery can be expressive. Another is that different types of wood should lock together in some joinery fashion if one is holding up the other rather than just gluing or nailing them together. These types of philosophies or guidelines help guide me and reinforce why something is the way it is. On the other hand, you can also do something that makes no sense whatsoever and it becomes whimsical. I wouldn’t say it is a requirement, but it certainly helps if you are satisfied with the work to a point that you can call it done. With this piece it looks like you have succeeded. Well done.

-- "Simplicity and repose are the qualities that measure the true value of any work of art." Frank LLoyd Wright